Simply my cd drive wont read the cd that i put in in.... The light flashes for about 3 seconds and then simply nothing happens I go into My PC and i click on DVD/CD-RW and it says please insert a cd. My computer is fairly new (less than a year) and this problem just came out of the nowhere. I cant remember screwing anything up or doing anything wrong. If you can help me please do so and write detailed help as well because i am not very good with computers. Step by step would be nice :) thanx

The laser in your CD may have become covered in dust/dirt from the CD's put in the drive and bits that flow in when the drive tray is opened. You can try a CD cleaning kit to clean the laser. If that doesn't change anything, then the part that moves the laser may have jammed. This requires opening the drive and manually moving the laser head to where the laser would read the inner most layer of a CD (the part with the hole in the middle of the CD). This will void any warranty you may have. As long as you know how to dismantle and piece back the drive together then you should be okay. I did this to an old 8x CD drive which didn't work but worked again when I performed this operation. I wouldn't recommend it if you're really not sure on how to do it. Try the cleaning method first :)

I will not suggest dismantling the Optical drive but here is what I recommend...so long as it is detected in the BIOS and windows OK. 1. Clean the drive first. 2. Get a boot/startup disk,try and see if you can browse any CD's directory in from DOS.If you can,windows is your problem. 3. If you can not read from the drive from DOS,forget it the drive has gone south. Goodluck ; )

thanx alot for your help but is there anyway i could clean the drive without having to go out and buy a cleaner? like use something household. Im very lazy :P. So you wouldnt suggest that its a connection loose?

I also have another problem :( I had the w32.blaster.worm virus we get rid of it after bringing it to a technician but now everything seems to be a little bit slower. And i dont have access to play over the internet in a game :P.... is there anything I can do to speed things up?